Year End Award Predictions -and Great Topics for Turkey Day Small Talk!

Happy Thanksgiving Everybody!!

It seems like each year the Time Life Empire announces its yearly awards earlier and earlier.. that means we have to bump up our annual predictions. Each year Time announces its Person of the Year.... Sports Illustrated has its Sportsman of the Year, and Entertainment Weekly has its Entertainer of the Year.

Today, we present our annual picks so let's start with Entertainer of the Year....

TMZ and Harvey Levin.

The wacky website/TV show has brought Big Brother into the 21st century. Thanks to the new technology allowing stuff to be shot on cell phones and immediately uploaded to the web, all kinds of crazy stuff has been popping up on YouTube. Just go to their home page and check out "videos being watched right now".. I never knew how weird women can be, and the stuff they put online. Jeepers!! But anyway, the crazy TMZ camera crews follow celebrities around so often, they are often cited on CNN and other news channels as the source of breaking news video. Where the Smoking Gun.com was the website for legal breaking news.. TMZ is the place to go for all things Hollywood. The site was founded by Harvey Levin, a nice Jewish lawyer who was the OJ Simpson reporter on Channel 2 in the 90's, and still has that easy gig as the "man on the street" reporter for The People's Court. Here in the NY Metropolitan Area, the TMZ Nightly News Show airs at 6:30 opposite the network evening newscasts; I wouldn't be surprised if it has taken a major bite out of their ratings.

Sportsman of the Year... is a little tougher... 2 immediately come to mind.
Coach Stringer and the Rutgers Women's Team - They made it all the way to the NCAA Women's Championship before losing. Unfortunately for them, Don Imus took note of the fact that the players weren't hot babes and the next thing you know a fundraiser for kids with cancer got ruined by the evil Al Sharpton. Nonetheless, Stringer and the team handled the situation with class and that class is more important than athletic ability when SI makes its pick, so you would think that the Ladies down the street at Rutgers would definitelty be frontrunners. The best thing to come of all this - WABC hired the I-Man and canned that shmuck Ron Kuby. Kuby and Sharpton are two of my least favorite people - along with Louis Farrakhan who still hasn't died yet...(he's been in my death pool for the last few years)... Sharpton will be back in the headlines again since Tawana Brawley's family inexplicably wants to reopen the case involving her daughter's rape accusation hoax that catapulted Sharpton into the headlines as an absolute fraud who embraces a case before knowing the facts.

Speaking of which... did you see what happened to the teenager in Roselle who was shot when a cop's gun went off. The cop was investigating a drug den when this kid pops out from out of nowhere in an alley, started to run, and refused to surrender. The cop drew his weapon and it accidentally fired and hit the kid. Now the mother of the kid comes out and says the kid didn't break the law by running from police, since he was scared his mother would yell at him for being out late at night! No, it's not ok to run from a cop! Brave cops have a tough enough job as it is, and when a cop tells you to stop... you do it immediately! I am so sick and tired of all these people who constantly criticize police... when all cops do is put their lives at risk every single day. Now the kid's mom comes out, holds a press conference criticizing the Roselle Police and shows off all the kid's sports medals. Why don't we hold a press conference for all the medals this brave cop has won during his years of service? One thing I am thankful for today... besides Trophy Wife.. is the Cops who make our streets safe! Thank you! Also kudos to the Hoboken SWAT Team who should be reinstated! Next time there's a hostage situation, all they need to do is toss in some Hooters Babes and everybody can go home happy.

Another Sportsman contender is Alex Rodridguez. ARod had a fantastic year at the plate and won the MVP despite being a constant target of tabloid fodder.. between being caught hanging out on the road with a go go dancer and his wife's incredibly vulgar shirt at a Yankee game... By the way, security at a sporting event should ban anyone who has an obscenity on their t shirt from enterting an event that contains little eyes that can read messages involving the seven words not allowed on TV. A Rod almost singlehandedly carried the Yankees from early season mediocrity to a wild card spot, and this was during a season that the true pre 2007 Yankee MVP Mariano Rivera had somewhat of an off year. Once ARod opted out of his Yankee deal....during the final game of the World Series, it stole the spotlight away from the Red Sox run to the championship. It also reinforced the belief that an ARod less Yankee team would fall farther away from the Red Sox in the American Leagues pecking order. Now that ARod is coming back for a run to the homerun record, he singlehandedly makes things look to be ok in Yankee land once again.

But the Sportsman of the Year really oughta be...

The University of Florida Athletic Department - They won the NCAA Basketball and Football Championships. What more can a team do?? Heck, the basketball team has won 2 consecutive championships! Kudos to Athletic Director Jeremy Foley for doing an absolutely fantastic job!

Person of the Year....

Offhand, I think Steve Jobs did a remarkable job playing the hype game by introducing the Iphone to the marketplace,. I was actually bummed when a co-worker got one, because I wanted to be the first one in the office to have the gadget. And once they come out with an Iphone that has a video camera, I will buy one myself so I too can shoot video for TMZ. Well, maybe not, but the notion of having all your gadgets in one works for me.. until of course the battery dies or the device breaks, and then you are left with nothing. My cell phone I bought in Summer of '06, the Samsung SGH-d9807 (see the July 6, 2006 column) has an mp3 player, but it is a royal pain in the neck to load the music. It seems that the I-phone resolved that issue. The commericals are quite catchy too, and it's always good to see Bill Gates not getting all the attention since he is so rich because every idea he ever came up with was stolen from Apple.. but that's besides the point.

However, when all is said and done... I predict that the TIme Magazine Person of the Year will be...

Hillary Clinton.

As much as I don't like her, America might be on the verge of history with our first Female President. Or we might have our first Black President. I wasn't too thrilled with Obama's defense of Eliot Spitzer's illegal alien license plan at the CNN debate after Hillary wisely came to her senses about how absurd it is that our tax money provide services to them. Unfortunately a lot of backwards voters wouldn't vote for a black man even if he pulled them out of a burning building. Nonetheless, Hillary has been the front runner.. she has a great political coach, being married to the Best President since the Pre Nixon era (that's as far back as I can remember) And being the rabbit in the pack has brought her a lot of attention.... Geraldine Ferraro would have been one heartbeat away had things gone differently back in 1984.. but Hillary has shown us that you may not need a shmeckle to hold down the office as President of the USA. The White House intern thong marketing might radically change (or might not according to some).. but face it... America might be in for a big change in terms of Women in Power. Therefore. Hillary's domination of the headlines makes her my pick for Person of the Year.

PUMPSTRADAMUS PICK OF THE WEEK
This week, in honor of Thanksgiving, Pocahantosdamus goes to New England for the big Patriots Eagles showdown... with the Patriots favored by 22! Last week he lost for just the 2nd time when the Bears let him down dropping to a still incredible 9-2. Sayeth the Pump: "On this Thanksgiving Yom Tov (or Yum Tov), I'm reminded that Benjamin Franklin once proposed that the turkey be made the national bird of the United States....: but the bald eagle won, and so, i'm going with the Eagles!"


UNBIASED GIANTS FAN PICK OF THE WEEK

Last week we went 2-0-1 to get a winning record at 16-15-2! Here are this week's picks: This week's games feature 2 rather unusual, almost historic point spreads

GIANTS 7 faves over Minnesota - Are the gate D hijinks going on at Giants games too? This is a good chance for the Giants not to fall into a lull since they have a good shot at the Wild Card.. but there are a few teams 2 games back who are licking their chops.

San Fransisco 10 1/2 doggies over ARIZONA - The Cards go into Week 11 just one game out of a wild card spot and they are double digit favorites! When was the last time that happened?? Too much to cover.. Take the Niners,

NEW ENGLAND 22 over Philly - When was the last time an NFL team was favored by 22? I thought this was a lock, but now that I see Pumpy is going with Philly, I am just a tad nervous!

CLIP OF THE WEEK:

Last week we mentioned Box in a Box. Here it is: